To the Editor: Fights at schools being suppressed in the news

We are taxpayers and retired teachers from District 205 with nearly 70 years of teaching service. Our own children received excellent educations through the school system. We care about the future of this system, and we are troubled by what we are seeing and hearing since the hiring of Dr. LaVonne Sheffield. Although there has been turmoil in the past, including strikes, we have never seen such low morale as there is this year. Early May, there was another incident on one of our campuses: they were on lock-down most of the day, several fights broke out, including food fights, several adults were assaulted, kids broke off combination locks and used them as weapons, the police were eventually called as well as the security personnel, some parents came and were as unruly as the students. This isn’t an isolated incident; it’s just the most recent one. And yet, to read the Rockford Register Star, one would surmise that things are wonderful. We wonder…who benefits from painting this rosy picture? Isn’t it time to be honest? Isn’t it time to expose the truth? The hiring of LaVonne Sheffield was a grave mistake, and those of us who will be here long after she packs her bags, will be picking up the pieces for years to come.